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EC agrees on compromise plan for telecom regulator

At the urging of the European Parliament (EP), the European Commission (EC) agreed last Friday to create a pan- European telecom market regulator that is smaller and less powerful than initially proposed. Last year, the EC laid out plans for the new regulatory body that are intended to (1) streamline the current patchwork of telecom regulatory regimes throughout European Union (EU), (2) facilitate spectrum coordination, and (3) promote competition. Modeled after the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, the pan-European regulator, as originally proposed, was to hold wide-ranging powers over competition and network security issues, with the EC to hold veto power over decisions made by that entity. In July, two EP committees agreed to combine each of the EU’s 27 state regulatory authorities under an umbrella agency that would govern telecommunications throughout the EU, although the original EC proposal was amended to remove EC veto power over the new agency. Although the EP accepted most tenets of the amended proposal in September, EP members continued to voice concern over plans to give the new EU-wide body oversight over spectrum allocation and network security issues. Under a compromise announced by the EC last Friday, the new pan-European regulator would have its jurisdiction limited to telecommunications services and would have no authority over spectrum or network security. (While the EC may continue to propose changes in spectrum policy, any such changes would still require the approval of EU ministers and the EP.) Although national regulators in each EU member state would be tasked with appointing the managing director of the new entity and half of its staff, each national regulator would be required to consult with the EC and with the new EU-wide body on rulemaking proposals that cover their national markets. EU ministers are expected to discuss the compromise plan later this month. Noting that “the [EP] and Council agree with the Commission on the need to strengthen the EU single telecom market,” EC Media and Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding asserted: “we have focused on what is important and have left out what is not essential at this moment in time.”